Particular organs of a human or an animal body are accessible from outside via a natural body orifice for medical treatment or examination. In particular, a cavernous or tubular organ of the gastrointestinal tract like the stomach is accessible via the mouth, the oral cavity and the esophagus.
For local treatment of the stomach, the oral intake of a tablet is known. In general the tablet comprises an excipient including a pharmaceutically active agent which develops its activity in the stomach, for example to medicate gastric ulcer or intestine cancer. When a patient swallows the tablet, it passes through the oral cavity and the esophagus. The tablet needs have geometrical dimensions and an outer shape ensuring that the tablet can pass through the alimentary system without causing any harm to the patient. Further, while being transported through the oral cavity, the esophagus and the stomach, the tablet is subject to digestive secretions being chemically aggressive and tending to dissolve the tablet. Due to the acid milieu in the stomach, the passage through the stomach into the intestine is often critical so that the outer coating of the tablet must ensure that the tablet is not dissolved too early. If the tablet is dissolved in the wrong organ or cellular compartment, the pharmaceutically active ingredient is less effective or even without any desired effect.
It is also knowledge of the prior art to provide the tablet with a protective cover which encloses the excipient and the pharmaceutically active agent. The protective cover is adapted to resist digestive secretions which occur in the oral cavity, the esophagus and/or the stomach. In order to be able to release the pharmaceutically active agent in the stomach, the protective cover is additionally adapted to be dissolved by the surrounding pH conditions at the place where the pharmaceutically active substance needs to be released. However, clinical practice teaches that the composition of the gastrointestinal milieu of various patients is quite different, depending among others on further medication, nutrition and age. It remains therefore difficult to develop a protective cover which is suitable for all patients to be treated with a particular pharmaceutically active substance. Hence, it is still not possible to exactly position a tablet in an organ of a patient and trigger its decomposition at an exact time point.
To circumvent this problem, the pharmaceutically active ingredient is present in a high dosage in order to achieve the desired success of the therapy. Consequently, this may lead to undesired side effects. Further, an increase of the concentration of the pharmaceutically active agent in the tablet results in elevated costs for the tablet.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,083,578 B2 provides devices and methods for in vivo examination of a body lumen. The in vivo device comprises two operational phases, one initial phase and a second final phase. In the initial phase the device can pass freely through a normally configured body lumen, whereas is may not be able to pass freely through an abnormally configured lumen. The device may be swallowed by a person in order to reach its position inside the body.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,285,897 B1 discloses an ambulatory system for detecting, recording and analyzing gastroesophageal reflux or intraesophageal pressure. The system includes an implantable sensor and radiofrequency transmitter, an external receiver and recorder, and an analysis software package. This system provides for monitoring any of various physiological parameters, including pH, temperature, and pressure, within the esophagus or other body lumens.
EP 1 676 522 A1 discloses devices, systems and methods for locating an in vivo signal source. A system for tracking an in vivo an image sensor may include a location detecting unit to locate the in vivo image sensor over the time and a data modifying unit to modify data sampled by the location detecting unit based on information sensed by the in vivo image sensor.
Sparda et al. (2005) describe a capsule, composed of lactose which remains intact in the gastrointestinal tract for 40-100 hours post ingestion, and which disintegrates thereafter. The capsule was shown to be a safe, effective and convenient tool for assessment of functional patency of the small bowel. It could indicate functional patency even in cases where traditional radiology indicates stricture.
Thus, it is an object of the present invention to provide an in vivo device, a system and the use thereof for exactly localizing/triggering a pharmaceutically active ingredient in a patient's body for in vivo treatment and/or diagnosis.